Sue Emberson will be attending this year's Midwest Presidents-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) from March 4th to 6th; and as part of the weekend, Rotary Presidents-Elect will be bringing items for distribution to U.S. veterans and their families.

 

Rotary is partnering with Illinois AMVETS and Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin to gather items for these families in need.  AMVETS is looking for adult and childrens' clothing, backpacks, purses, old cell phones and laptops.

 

Veterans Outreach is looking for basic food such as canned tuna, ketchup, mustard, Jello, pasta & pasta sauce, cereal, canned ravioli and spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and pancake mix.  They also want toiletries such as razors, shaving cream, men's and women's deodorant, shampoo, feminine products and soap.

 

Rotarians are asked to bring these items to the next meeting; cash contributions are also welcome.

 

 

Pictures of individual members are still needed for the Rotary directory on our website; dozens were taken at the last meeting, but we'll be taking images of those members absent from that meeting during the coming weeks.

 

If you have an image you'd like to submit, please send it to Brian Adams at brianadams62@hotmail.com (head shot of the Rotarian only, and no gag shots will be accepted).

 

 

Sycamore Rotarians voted on February 24th to donate $25,000 towards the construction of a shelter, to be erected by the Sycamore Park District as part of its Vision 2020 initiative.

 

The Rotary Club is among several local service clubs and organizations asked to contribute to the effort; the Board of Directors recommended this donation after sifting through a number of proposals from Rotarians, and the Club voted by ballot in favor of proceeding.

 

The Board will endeavor to keep track of the location, construction style and overall cost of the project as it evolves; a 50% matching grant from an anonymous donor will help to further defray the cost.

 

 

Sycamore City Manager Brian Gregory appeared before his fellow Rotarians to discuss some of the challenges the city is facing for the coming year; he says they've made progress on some long-standing projects, and is hopeful that they'll finish up soon...and as smoothly as planned.

 

He says the upgrade to the city's water system is near completion; this process has gone on for years, as Sycamore sought to add the number of drilled wells in town so as to improve its overall quality.  He also notes that the City Council has approved the zoning requests from DeKalb County for the expansion of the jail; this will require permanently blocking off one street, and expansion of others to handle the size of the new building...and the resultant traffic.

 

He also discussed the effort to attract more customers to the central business district.  The city is working on improving the visibility of signage downtown; he says people think nothing of parking a long distance from the front of big-box store, because they can see it as they walk up -- but if people can't spot a store in the more compact downtown shopping area, they just won't go.  Sycamore hopes to make the presence of local businesses more obvious, and point up the convenience of shopping there.

 

 

The DeKalb Rotary Club is again holding a fundraising beer and wine tasting party on Sunday, March 6th; it will be from 2 to 5 p.m. at Inboden's Meat Market, at 1106 North 1st Street in DeKalb.

 

A variety of beers and wines will be available, along with plenty of hors d'oeuvres and sweets; all proceeds will go towards community service projects, with a portion of all tickets sold to Sycamore Rotarians coming back to our club.

 

Tickets are $40 each in advance, and $50 at the door; you can purchase them at the upcoming Rotary meeting from Brian Adams, or contact John Horn from the DeKalb Rotary at (815) 790-0407.

 

 

The Sycamore Rotary Club's annual Hula-for-Loota fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, April 21st; it will be from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Chapel in the Pines in Sycamore.

 

This annual Hawaiian-themed event is a fundraiser for the Rotary Club's scholarship fund; the featured event is a draw-down raffle, with numbers being removed one-by-one...and the last one drawn, wins the grand prize of $3,000.

 

There will also be cash and prizes given away throughout the drawing, as well as a 50/50 drawing; tickets for the main drawing are available from Paul Michel.